David Piehl writes:
Whether she recognizes it or not, I think Dyna is
complaining about the by-products of single party
rule.
David Piehl
Central
Dyna Sluyter wrote:
This is a story I've heard over and over again. We
are pretty much
forced to buy our natural gas, electricity, and
telecommunications from
barely regulated city sanctioned monopolies. Over the
years I and many
other citizens have called for tighter regulation of
these monopolies
or at least some competition. To date no city
administration in memory
has been willing to give us choices beyond the
monopolies formerly
known as the Minneapolis Gas Company, Northern States
Power, and US
West. I've been told privately that this unwillingness
to bring these
monopolies under control is because these utilities
have our elected
city officials "in their pocket"
Of these scantly regulated monopolies the gas company
takes the
biggest chuck of our hard earned dollars. Want the
most efficent and
longest lasting water heater available? It's on sale
now at Menard's
for about $450. But despite being made by Bosch and
carrying all the
usual agency approvals there's no way you can get one
legally installed
in Minneapolis. Why? Because neither the gas company
or the small club
of contractors licensed to work in Minneapolis carries
the Bosch line.
So if you want a gas water heater in Minneapolis
you're stuck with one
that will use twice as much energy and need replacing
again in a decade
or so.
Need a new furnace or other heating device? Don't
even think of
calling the gas company- they'll be happy to condemn
your old one and
shut it down in the middle of winter. This is there
little way of
forcing you to buy one of there new ones at grossly
inflated prices.
What if you have an old house like mine that never had
central heat,
and is so small that it doesn't need more than maybe
twp heaters? The
gas company and their buddies will be happy to jam a
furnace in your
closet and run ducts all over the place for $20,000 or
more. About now
those $2,000 gas "fireplaces" look tempting... A
friend of mine went
that route. The $2,000 model was the price leader, she
had to "upgrade"
to the $3,000 gas "fireplace". With installation the
estimated cost was
$7,000, and after all the cost overruns that cute
little gas fireplace
cost $9,000.
This explains why I'm still relying on a gas space
heater made by a
company that went out of business in the 1960s, and a
water heater from
the 1980s. Meanwhile, Fleet Farm has a nifty corn/wood
pellet burning
heater on sale about every other week for $1100. With
an electric auger
feeding in the fuel these renerwable fueled furnaces
can run for a day
or more on a bag of corn. Going up into the $4,000
range there are wood
fired boilers available that will provide heat and hot
water for the
biggest home, the garage, and probably the neighbors
too. These boilers
are housed in a neat little metal shed and can sit out
by the back
fence where you're insurance company won't worry about
them. And unlike
the huge ducting the gas company's forced air furnaces
requires, the
hot water heat these wood fired boilers generate can
easily be piped
throughout any home.
If you're bored some day and want some laughs, stop
by the Permit Desk
and see if they'll let you pull a permit for any
heating device that
doesn't consume the gas company's or the electric
company's product.
God forbid the city let citizens switch to renewables
and deprive the
city treasury of franchise fees and the politicians of
campaign
donations!
> I already pay twice as much for car insurance and
substantially more
> for
> water/sewer service than my suburban counterparts .
My property taxes
> have
> almost doubled in the last few years and will double
again in the
> coming few
> years. I am a single parent, (currently working
only one job) and
> fighting
> just to keep my head above water.
I and my Minneapolis dwelling coworkers in Postal
Service
transportation have stacks of awards for years of safe
driving of big
trucks in Minneapolis... yet all our insurance company
looks at is our
zip code. As for taxes, we're just beginning the
"death spiral" as the
city tries to fund legacy liabilities with a shrinking
tax base.
> I just can't get ahead in Minneapolis. I have been
struggling for 10
> years
> and I give up! When my youngest graduates from high
school next year
> my
> house will go up for sale and I will be out of here.
I have lived in
> Minneapolis for 32 years and I can't afford it
anymore!
Agreed- that $15,000 for a new furnace would buy a
decent travel
trailer. And for way less than $100,000 I could have a
new factory
built cottage instilled on one of my lots. But Nooo...
Minneapolis has
fantasies that we're going to buy $200,000+ townhouses
in one of their
crime ridden neighborhoods!
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